Is Interest in US Travel Plummeting?

PHOTO: The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most Instagrammed places in the world. (Photo via Flickr/Andrew)

Travel to the U.S. may be on the decline, according to a new report on Quartz. The article suggests that interest in travel to the U.S. has fallen from at least 94 countries since Donald J. Trump was sworn in as president.

“Overall average interest in flying to the U.S. declined 17 percent from the three weeks before Trump’s inauguration to two weeks afterward, Hopper said, based on weekly averages of an analysis of billions of global flight searches,” reports David Yanofsky.

The fact that flight searches are down is a bad omen.

“Flight searches are an indication of interest in future tourism. So before a decline of tourists is seen at landmarks, museums, or restaurants, it can be observed in the behaviors of would-be tourists as they research and book travel,” Yanofsky points out.

He also notes that this flies in the face of Trump’s campaign promises.

“International tourism’s value to the economy is also calculated as an export, so any reduction in tourists from overseas could also exacerbate the U.S.'s trade deficit—exactly the opposite of Trump’s stated policy goals,” says Yanofsky.

In terms of which destinations will be most affected, Hopper points to San Francisco with a 33 percent decline in interest and Baltimore, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Dallas all experiencing a decline in interest of more than 20 percent.

For more on how tourism could be affected by the Trump administration, read on here.

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